The abandoned building sits on a 2-acre property owned by O & G Industries Inc., a construction materials and services company that does business next door.

O & G, intending to have the building demolished, offered its use to Waterwitch Hose Co. for several weeks as a temporary training site. On Oct. 7 the volunteer firefighters had a search and rescue drill there.

Apparently sparks from small pieces of wood lit to simulate smoky conditions started the fire. It spread quickly into a right rear section that firefighters were not allowed to enter for safety reasons, according to Galbraith.

He said it is possible the area could have been saturated with a substance that was not immediately detectable.

The firefighters quickly switched gears from the training exercise to perform an exterior attack and douse the flames, Galbraith said.

News of the fire was not immediately made public, but Galbraith said all of the proper authorities, including Fire Marshal Karen Facey, were notified the following morning.

"We didn't try and hide anything,'' Galbraith said.

Firefighters returned to the site twice the following day to extinguish some lingering embers that apparently became trapped between a wooden ceiling and the concrete slab roof, Galbraith added.

Facey investigated the fire and deemed it accidental.

In the future, she added, she would prefer that she and her staff be notified of all structure fires immediately, regardless where or how they occur.

"For investigation purposes, the earlier we are notified the better, so we can reconstruct what occurred,'' Facey said.

She said this was an educational opportunity, reinforcing how unpredictable fire can be for anyone.

"This emphasizes the need to have working smoke detectors and to be fire safety conscious in our own homes,'' Facey said.

"Our intentions were not to burn the place down,'' Galbraith said, noting this was an important lesson for the firefighters in what can go wrong at a fire.

Future training protocols will be reviewed so this does not occur again, he said. "It wasn't supposed to be this way."

The state Department of Environmental Protection is scheduled to oversee the building's demolition because it may contain materials that must be properly handed so they don't create an environmental hazard.